UK Passport Delay

[beoon]

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I managed to source a new 50 Lux Asph (after months of trying) and posted off the Passport to Leica UK in July.

Usually the Passport is returned by Leica within a few weeks.

Nothing has been returned from Leica UK to date and I phoned them last week (I was worried it had been lost in the post).

The lady at Leica UK said that as part of the recent changes in the UK the Passports are now handled by a "mailing centre" and that I was still covered with my receipt from the Leica dealer.

Has anyone else experienced delays in receiving their Passports from Leica UK?

[scsambrook]

I wouldn't worry, not for the moment anyway. This is probably just teething trouble with the new improved customer service structure for the UK.

[viramati]

teething troubles!!!***$£??. I have bee trying for 10 days now to contact someone in Leica Uk about get a lens repaired under the passport scheme and it would appear that the whole system has gone to the dogs. phone every day but no one ever gets back to me. am getting really pi****d

[scsambrook]

teething troubles!!!***$£??. I have bee trying for 10 days now to contact someone in Leica Uk about get a lens repaired under the passport scheme and it would appear that the whole system has gone to the dogs. phone every day but no one ever gets back to me. am getting really pi****d

 

Ah yes ... restructuring can be a painful process. My own employer is currently restructuring too. It's hardly a pleasurable experience. except perhaps for those who plan such exercises.Both employees and customers alike should realise that this process is intended to improve the functioning of the institution/company primarily for its benefit and that we are merely incidental.to the needs of the body corporate. Leica (UK and Solms) understands perfectly well that 'teething troubles' can safely be inflicted on customers ... especially warranty-claiming ones who have nowhere else to go. We should just be content to wait quietly and tolerantly until the new organisation settles down. After all, it is for our own good. Isn't it?

[Xmas]

After all, it is for our own good. Isn't it?

 

Perhaps they think that Cosina might buy Leica?

 

Noel

[spylaw4]

teething troubles!!!***$£??. I have bee trying for 10 days now to contact someone in Leica Uk about get a lens repaired under the passport scheme and it would appear that the whole system has gone to the dogs. phone every day but no one ever gets back to me. am getting really pi****d

 

Join the club, David! The whole thing has been a disaster - someone needs a lesson in change management!

[scsambrook]

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Perhaps they think that Cosina might buy Leica?

 

Noel

 

Well . . . would Cosina want to buy Leica? Does Leica actually have anything that Cosina needs or might be useful to them? Although as we were orginally talking about after-sales service I have to say that I don't know anything about how Cosina-Voigtlander runs its repair organisation in the UK.

[Xmas]

Well . . . would Cosina want to buy Leica? Does Leica actually have anything that Cosina needs or might be useful to them? Although as we were orginally talking about after-sales service I have to say that I don't know anything about how Cosina-Voigtlander runs its repair organisation in the UK.

 

It was a snide jest, Cosina have been eating Leica's lunch with cheap but good lenses, the way Nikon and Canon drygulched Zeiss in the 60's. Cosina have got a license to use a Ge name already, they don't need Leica's, they can make digital Ms when their agreements on the RD/1 expire.

 

Don't think Cosina have a UK repair centre and some of their lenses need to be sent back for re-calibration just like Leicas get sent back to Solms. Leica used to have repair centre in the London, and did repairs over the counter, while you nipped out for coffee, e.g. replacing a mount on 9cm cron, and re-registering. No more alas.

 

Noel

[beoon]

The Passport for my 50mm Lux finally arrived yesterday and was delivered in a folder with an M series brochure.

I guess I was just unlucky to send it to Leica during their re-organisation.

The interesting thing is that the passport does not record the serial number of the lens, only the lens description (all my other passports record the actual lens serial number).

[farnz]

If it's any consolation, the last new Leica lenses I bought were some 2 years ago and it took about 2 months for the Passport warranties to return. (I'm not suggesting that that's acceptable or defending Leica but at the time MK told me that it was normal.)

 

Pete.

[aesop]

 

...<snip>The interesting thing is that the passport does not record the serial number of the lens, only the lens description (all my other passports record the actual lens serial number).

 

 

...highly irregular, if you ask me, beoon. How does the passport apply to your specific lens if the lens's unique serial number is not recorded on the document?

[XK50]

Yes, I've been waiting 6 weeks for a passport in respect of a new f/e 35mm Summilux.

 

Niall Ferguson talks about the problems created by moving from "relationship" to "transactional" banking. Suspect the same thing is going on here. A blog - and even, forgive me, a forum - is no real replacement for a "Wendy" on the end of a phone.